so in times that are good, in times that are bad for any times that i’ve had it all i will be glad

October 15, 2010

3 minute read

there are times when everything goes your way. every single bounce goes the way you need it to. every time you need a bail out, you get it. every time you need the wind to stop blowing, it stops blowing.

okay, on that last one, i admit i’ve probably been playing a little too much disc golf. the throbbing in my elbow agrees with me.

anyway, there are those times (or to use church speak: seasons) where you’re on top of the world. no matter what is going on, you come out on top. no one can knock you down. nothing can set you back. no matter what, you can’t lose.

and those times are great.

but those times aren’t all of the time.

there are times (err, seasons) where you’re doing the right thing over and over and the breaks don’t go your way. no matter what you do, the bounce goes the other way (“yeah coach, but a quarter inch the other way and you would’ve missed completely”), the bail out doesn’t come, and the wind sends your disc into the briar patch.

and those times suck.

it’s really easy to get down when we go through the times where the breaks just aren’t going our way. it’s even easier to complain and whine and start to think, “what’s the point?” worst of all, the thoughts of “why should i keep doing the right thing if everyone else is passing me and they’re not doing it?” start to creep in our head.

but we can’t do that.

regardless of what happens with other people, regardless of if they’re getting by and succeeding without doing what’s right, we have to do what’s right. god never said that everything would go our way or that we would get all of the breaks, but he told us a way to live. he told us what the “right thing” is.

do we do the right thing because we expect to get ahead by doing it or do we do it because we know it to be right? there’s a big difference in the two mind sets. god told us to do the right thing because it’s right. he even went so far as to tell us that if we did the right thing, we’d be persecuted, made fun of, and wouldn’t get ahead as fast as others. he told us that in the end, we’d win, but we might not see that victory for quite a long time.

my old boss had a saying that he said all of the time. it was, “do the right thing and leave the rest to god.” the results aren’t up to us. we don’t control them. all we can do is do what we know to be the right thing.

no matter what, we keep doing what we’re supposed to be doing. we don’t take short cuts and we don’t take the easy way out.